Cargo is routinely secured with respect to the bed of a transport vehicle by straps and the like. There are many situations, however, when the forward and even the side portions of the cargo are inaccessible. Consider a high mobility, multi-purpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV) used by the military. The bed is often covered and, with large cargo pieces, access to the forward and side portions of the cargo is very restricted. To make matters worse, sometimes the cargo includes delicate equipment which must be secured in the HMMWV as it traverses rough terrain. HMMWVs are even air-lifted in transport aircraft and sometimes dropped form the aircraft via a parachute. Accordingly, the cargo must be adequately secured in the HMMWV.
At the same time, the systems used to adequately secure the cargo must facilitate deployment and storage even with access limitations due to the size of the cargo. Moreover, it is often the case where the cargo is fairly heavy and/or awkward to maneuver. Once the HMMWV reaches the intended battle field location, personnel must be able to quickly unload and deploy the cargo and then, later, quickly load and secure the cargo back in the vehicle.
These seemingly mutually contradictory requirements, namely, ruggedization, ergonomics, and ease of deployment and stowage, have not been adequately met in loading systems associated with the known prior art.